Love at Dawn Reviews

US Review of Books“He hurt as always watching her from a distance, unable to touch her, unable to speak to her. The one woman who had forever worked his heart into pieces.”

It is a story of struggle, to build light and beauty from shadow and pain, to fulfill one’s destiny while respecting the dreams of others, and to listen to the songs of the heart above the tumolt of everyday life. For Tory, it is a time of love, for her brother, for her best friend, and maybe for herself, a beautiful young woman born to privilege in Zamzudan, a fictional country in East Africa. But two obstacles stand in her way, the giant yoke bern in agony and silence by Rashad, the forbidden man she yearns for, and the stalking unidentified slasher who is terrorizing her tropical paradise with his own dark, hidden agenda.

Tory Da-Silva, struggling with her own shackled passions, reconnects with the handsome, brooding man from her past but the reunion is anything but smooth. A self-made giant who had risen from a childhood in the brothels of Gutterpark to the high position Da-Silva corporate counsel, Rashad Macaulay strives to be a man of his word without denying the love of his life. Circling around the trials and tribulations of these two is a panarama of intriguing characters, from happy newlyweds to a sinister serial killer on a macabre crusade. Quickly, heartache and violence crash into Tory and Rashad as two star-crossed lovers, upsetting not only their life-plans and peace of mind but also their understanding of their own scarred-heart histories. Before the novel closes, bullets and blades fly, tears and bloood are shed, and truth and love teeter on the precipice of disaster.

Author Lara Daniels combines love story and mystery to keep the reader engaged in the lives and loves of her characters as they strive to do right, by others and by themselves, in a world where pain flows easily, carried by both recklessness and avarice. Ultimately, the reader learns that while love is a double-edged blade that cuts deep, and while too often lovers make commitments today that come back to haunt them tomorrow, some pain is worth enduring.

Love at Dawn is an emotional roller-coaster in the way that even Love in Paradise was not. The stories of Tory and Rashad are very touching and universal. A man who believes that there’s nothing good in him because of where he comes from and a young woman who seems to have everything. When she tries to draw him out, mistakes are made that haunt both of them into the present. Add a deranged murderer and have a highly suspenseful tale that will have you flipping through the pages. By the end of thos book, you’ll would have been on a journey through overcoming adversity, pain, loss and ultimately self forgiveness.